Articles
What the Flock?
An index of reporting, court records, and public filings showing what happens beyond Flock's public-safety claims. These are the documented problems, mistakes, and abuses that can be easy to miss when the story comes only from the vendor or the agencies using the cameras.
81 articles · page 3 of 5 · RSS
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Flock camera vandals say privacy reforms aren’t enough: ‘The changes are bull----’
nbcnews.com
Flock Safety announced reforms on Aug. 13, including shorter data retention and new oversight, following a wave of activist vandalism against its nationwide network of surveillance cameras. Activists targeting the cameras say the changes do not address their concerns. The report notes that some communities have persuaded local governments to cancel Flock contracts while others renew each year.
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Flock camera sabotage grows amid privacy concerns
youtu.be
According to the video description, cities across the country are unplugging Flock cameras used to record traffic and other violations as privacy concerns grow. The segment, reported by Jason Allen for CBS Evening News, also refers to sabotage of the camera units. No further detail is available in the posted text.
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New records detail Arizona Flock camera misuse...
youtube.com
Apache Junction Police internal affairs records detail how former Officer Joshua McDaniel admitted using Flock camera data to search for his wife’s license plate during marital troubles.
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Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code
wired.com
WIRED reconstructed code Flock Safety served from its own login pages, describing an AI tool called OS Investigate that ships with 69 prewritten prompts and 45 data tools. The prompts let officers find drivers by movement patterns, identify vehicle associates, and search by physical description, drawing on plate scans, arrest records, dispatch logs, and commercial identity databases. Flock says the product is still in development.
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Stow police cut ties with Flock Safety after officer allegedly used cameras to track someone he knows
boston.com
An internal affairs investigation found Stow, Massachusetts officer Jason Rogers ran vehicle searches through Flock Safety multiple times in 2024 and 2025 with no legitimate law enforcement purpose and queried the state criminal records database at least five times improperly. Rogers was placed on unpaid leave and faces criminal charges and termination proceedings. The chief ended the department's Flock contract, with the last camera removed in early August.
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Flock Safety overhauls rules following ANF investigations
atlantanewsfirst.com
Flock Safety announced it is cutting its default license plate data retention recommendation from 30 days to seven, adding an "evidence mode" cold storage option for active investigations. The company will require its machine learning audit tool, proactive account lockouts for abnormal search behavior, mandatory case codes, and multi-factor authentication. The changes follow reporting on more than a dozen officers disciplined or arrested for personal misuse, including stalking partners.
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Despite 'New' Updates, Flock's Creepy Cameras Remain Major Civil Liberties Threat
aclu.org
The ACLU assesses Flock Safety's announced operational changes, including a reduction in default data retention from 30 days to seven days with an "Evidence Mode" exception, local control over which offenses other agencies may search for, mandatory search reasons, and wider rollout of an audit tool. It argues most measures repeat earlier interventions that officers circumvented and that the audit tool has never been independently evaluated.
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Thomas Massie Moves to Defund Flock Camera Networks
yahoo.com
Rep. Thomas Massie announced plans to introduce a bill conditioning federal DHS, DOJ, and highway grants on jurisdictions not deploying Flock Safety or similar mass license plate reader systems. No bill text exists yet. The piece also describes Rep. Tim Burchett's Protection Against Mass Surveillance Act, a defeated ALPR funding amendment, and the Surveillance Accountability Act requiring warrants for facial recognition.
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Fight Creepy ALPR Cameras ("Get The Flock Out")
aclu.org
The ACLU's campaign page against ALPR deployment, with an organizing toolkit for residents seeking to end local contracts. It puts the Flock network at roughly 120,000 cameras, states that fewer than one percent of scanned vehicles connect to a crime, and catalogs uses by federal immigration agents and against critics of police departments.
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Narragansett council votes to end Flock surveillance camera program
bostonglobe.com
Narragansett's town council voted 5-0 to terminate its Flock Safety contract, which ran to 2027, and to absorb any cancellation fees. Residents and members raised data-misuse concerns, and a former councilwoman noted the program had outgrown its authorization as a one-year pilot. The town operated three cameras; a fourth was stolen.
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Flock sees controversial camera contracts canceled in 23 states
washingtonexaminer.com
Roughly 23 city councils have voted to cancel, reject, or deactivate Flock Safety license plate readers since January 2026, with about 98 doing so since 2021, according to the activist group Deflock. Harrisonburg and Elkton, Virginia, Framingham, Massachusetts, and Saranac Lake, New York, are among them, citing Fourth Amendment and data-sharing concerns. Flock says agencies own their data and set retention schedules.
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Police are spending opioid settlement funds on Flock cameras
motherjones.com
Mother Jones identified 19 law enforcement agencies in ten states that spent more than $920,000 in opioid settlement funds on Flock cameras and competing license plate readers since 2024, plus six localities funding contracts with the Peregrine data platform. Officials argued the cameras address drug trafficking, while addiction policy advocates and residents in Morgantown and Pensacola objected that the money should fund treatment.
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6 more Ga. police department employees under investigation over alleged Flock camera misuse
wrdw.com
Savannah Police placed four officers and two civilian employees on administrative leave after an internal audit found searches unrelated to law enforcement, including queries about acquaintances and family members. One officer allegedly gave an outside agency access to the department's Flock system. All six cases went to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
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Map Shows Cities That Have Rejected, Deactivated Flock Cameras
newsweek.com
Drawing on DeFlock's crowd-sourced data, Newsweek counts 95 cities that have rejected ALPR systems: 22 deactivating cameras, 47 canceling contracts, and 25 turning down proposed agreements. Ypsilanti, Michigan is identified as the only jurisdiction with an outright ban. Officials cited privacy risk, federal data access, and inadequate public consultation.
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Monroe County cancels contract with Flock Safety
ipm.org
Monroe County commissioners voted 2-0 to end their Flock Safety contract more than a year early, paying roughly $3,000 to remove six sheriff's office cameras. Commissioner Julie Thomas acknowledged the cameras' usefulness but said "the way the data has been abused...is terrible." The sheriff raised no objection. Bloomington had declined to renew its own contract in April 2026.
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Inside the growing police use and misuse of Flock's license-plate reader cameras
cnn.com
CNN documented a pattern of officers across multiple states searching Flock's network for personal reasons. Milwaukee internal affairs found an officer had used the system to track a romantic partner's location 124 times and that partner's ex 55 times. Flock's chief executive pointed to a new audit-assistance tool that flags abnormal use.
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Flock Safety Employees Watched Kids' Gymnastics Room to Pitch Surveillance Tech (Updated)
yahoo.com
Public records obtained by a Dunwoody, Georgia resident show Flock Safety staff, including a vice president, viewed cameras labeled "Gymnastics" and "Main Pool Right" at a Jewish community center during sales demonstrations for prospective police clients. Flock's CEO apologized, and the city council renewed the contract with added data-ownership guardrails. The piece also notes Georgia officer misuse arrests, camera vandalism, and LAPD letting its Flock contract expire.
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License Plate Reader Policy (Flock Safety)
flocksafety.com
The vendor's own published policy, included here as a primary source. It states that customers own the data their cameras collect, that records are hard-deleted on a rolling 30-day basis by default but adjustable by customer request, that customers decide whom to share with, and that Flock uses under one percent of images for machine learning.
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Flock cameras track more than your license plate, and they're spreading fast
engadget.com
An overview of Flock Safety's camera network describes natural-language vehicle and person searches, over 100,000 ALPRs nationwide, and data sharing that gave ICE access via local police, including more than 1,400 Denver searches logged on ICE's behalf. It documents exposed cameras found by researcher Benn Jordan, dozens of officer stalking cases, misread plates leading to stops, and Denver's contract cancellation followed by an Axon award.
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More License Plate Reader Mission Creep: School Residency Verification, Background Checks, and Noise Complaints
eff.org
EFF's review of Flock search logs found police running license plate queries for purposes far outside criminal investigation. School police in Buford, Georgia logged more than 375 searches to verify student residency between January 2025 and March 2026, over half of all their ALPR searches. Twenty-six agencies used the system on noise complaints, some querying thousands of camera networks.